His good nature and solid work habits soon helped him to advance, and he was eventually named the companys first black agent. [11] Uncle Noname became Uncle Wally's Muffin Company in 1999. However, in 1985, mismanagement forced Amos to gradually sell off parts of his company. (February 23, 2023). In 1986 Amos was named recipient of one of president Ronald Reagans first Awards for Entrepreneurial Excellence. Having made millions with his gourmet cookies, Amos seemed to be riding highhe bought a beautiful home in Hawaii and spent untold nights flying across the country promoting his cookies. Talent-agent-turned-entrepreneur Wally Amos made Famous Amos through hard work, chutzpah and a tasty recipe. This time, the company produces its own fat-free muffins and will soon offer take-home cupcake kits. He and Andy would sign autographs. He had enormous enthusiasm for his products, and he used his boundless energy and personal popularity to promote them. He was living close by in Hollywood and he was starving. In 1975, a friend suggested to Amos that he set up a store to sell his cookies, and in March of that year, the first Famous Amos cookie store opened in Los Angeles, California. Will Orange County's Fledgling Clean Power Agency Survive? ." Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: Wally Amos, Birth Year: 1936, Birth date: July 1, 1936, Birth State: Florida, Birth City: Tallahassee, Birth Country: United States. //]]>, For Wally Amos, success has had a very sweet smell, indeed. In the past five years, women in L.A. and throughout California have started creating a new future for custom car culture. Im not a production guy. When he sold Famous Amos in 1985, Wally . In Current Biography Yearbook, Amos reported that his grandmother treated him "with a very tender and understanding kind of love." Amos uprooted his second wife and newborn son and moved to Californiaand then Masakela dropped him. Under the Uncle Noname label, by 1996 Amos had again scored success with fat-free gourmet sweets. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"DAWbIiPtfTtFzY4CfwZ6UTAwi.hV.E5y1C9rowz8sW8-86400-0"}; But ''it was a shocker at first.'' Amos, Wally and Leroy Robinson. By 1985, on sales of $10 million, the Famous Amos Cookie Company reported a $300,000 loss. Although Wally Amos was introduced to chocolate chip cookies by his Aunt Delia and her old-fashioned recipe, when Amos started his own business he used a recipe by Ruth Wakefield, who is credited with inventing chocolate chip cookies at her Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, in the 1930s. Contact at: Uncle Noname Cookie CompanyP.O. Having your face or company named after you, you cant take that to the bank. Amos doesn't even own his own name anymore. . The Uncle Nonam (pronounced No-NAHH-may) Cookie Company specializes in five varieties of gourmet cookies. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/trade-magazines/amos-wally. . I deal in love." The shop cleared $300k its first year. . http://www.GreatCookieComeback.com Wally Amos was the King of the Cookie Kingdom. He described his Aunt Della as "happy all the time," and as a woman who loved to cook and bake, especially chocolate-chip cookies. "In financial terms," Wally wrote in 1996, "all I've done since is amass debt and miss payments." Around the time Wally lost ownership in his company, his career took perhaps it's most remarkable turn. I wanted to do something that really had quality. A successful motivational speaker, he penned inspirational self-help books and received a 1986 award for entrepreneurial excellence from President Ronald Reagan. Kansas City, Missouri 64141-6627 If I can eat it, I can sell it.. Amos is a popular motivational speaker who has used his celebrity status to promote literacy and to support drop-out prevention programs. A cookie from Famous Amos became a status symbol and its flagship store became a stop on the Hollywood scene, dazzling staid establishment figures like Stanley G. Robertson of the Los Angeles Sentinel. Today, Famous Amos is an international brand that you can find in most grocery stores. Wally Amos became the first Black talent agent in the history of the William Morris Agency in 1962. Copyright 2023 Interactive One, LLC. How is he? . He picks up a big bag of just-purchased cookies, bearing the famous Famous Amos logo and a picture of Amos himself, grinning and wearing a straw hat and colorful shirt. They were saying I didnt even have the right to my own name, Amos said in Parade. Fax: (714) 722-4261 In 1992, President Baking Company bought Famous Amos for $61 millionmore than 55 times what Wally Amos sold his controlling stake for just a few years earlier. He spent the ensuing years working in the stock room at Saks Fifth Avenue, and in the mailroom at the prestigious William Morris Agency. There is no other homeland or mother country. For an entrepreneur who was down on his luck it was almost too good a deal to pass up. '', Keebler, a unit of Flowers Industries, which had inherited the reformulated cookies, agreed to meet Mr. Amos's conditions. He signed Simon & Garfunkel and headed the agency's rock 'n' roll department. As he wrote in his autobiography, he began slowly to console himself and his frustration by making chocolate-chip cookies in the style of his Aunt Della. Somebody did something to me that paralyzed me for life. If you believe that, youll never move forward.. To Wally, setbacks were burnt cookiessacrifices on the alter of carelessness. In nine books, hundreds of speeches, and countless baking metaphors, Wally pours half-full glasses. By 1985, Famous Amos reported a $300,000 loss on sales of $10 million. ''In quicksand, if you start flailing all about and panicking with each movement you go in deeper, but if you just stay calm and look about, chances are you'll see a twig or something you can reach to pull yourself out. Amos didn't only befriend the glitterati. At the same time, he moved to New York City to live with his mother's sister, Della. When his mother and grandmother came to New York, Amos moved in with them in 1951. 1986: Won President's Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence. However, in 1985, mismanagement forced Amos to gradually sell off parts of his company. That was the whole schtick.". cookie emporium any day," he wrote cheekily in his L.A. I don't live my life for other people. Although he was hired to work in the mail room and to do some janitorial work, Amos got noticed by the upper management because he was willing to do things that were not part of his job description. Because of his intelligence and high motivation to please others, he went, in a few short months, from mailroom worker to become a personal secretary to Howard Hausman, who was a senior vice-president with the firm. Tietosuojakytnnstmme ja evstekytnnstmme voit lukea lis siit, miten kytmme henkiltietojasi. U.S.A. He began serving cookies to clients, inspired, depending on the account, by either Aunt Della or a back-of-package Nestle recipe. He is the founder of the Famous Amos chocolate-chip cookie, the Cookie Kahuna, and Aunt Della's Cookies gourmet cookie brands, and he was the host of the adult reading program, Learn to Read. I got tired of not making any money and constantly giving all my energy to someone else, he recalled in Ebony. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}Elon Musk. "He had great instincts about story, and he had great instincts about how to make people feel good," Shawn says. For the latest national news from NPR and our live radio broadcast, visit LAist.com/radio. ''They can conceptualize brilliantly but then struggle to implement.''. Masekela fired him, so Amos worked at his friend John Levy's entertainment firm. Since leaving Famous Amos behind, Wally dipped into other bakery ventures, including the launch of another cookie company in the early 1990s. He began using these cookies, later, as "calling cards" when meeting with clients, and when attending meetings with producers. After dropping out of high school, he served in the Air Force and worked in the stockroom of Saks Fifth Avenue. You have to focus on what you can do, he said. Amosby then, on his third wife, kid, and cookie company, began selling self-help. At one point, he lost his home. (847) 803-4600 . His hat and shirt were added to the Smithsonian Institution's advertising collection. This page was last edited on 10 February 2023, at 22:25. His store also became a haven for Hollywood hopefuls in what was then a rough area around Sunset Blvd. What of the man who started it all? Of course, it will take more than Mr. Amos's paid seal of approval to revive the brand. The Sunset Boulevard set couldnt get enough of the Cookie Mans magic mix. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Wally Amos was born on July 1, 1936, in Tallahassee, Florida. Telephone: (816) 502-4000 But he has been chastened by failure, acknowledging that in some respects he walked into a trap awaiting many entrepreneurs. Amos remained on the companys board as vice-chairman, but he became increasingly dismayed as the venture was sold to one investment group after another. http://www.GreatCookieComeback.com Wally Amos was the King of the Cookie Kingdom. In 2002, he was traveling the world promoting Uncle Wally's muffinsand himselfsince he had become a sought after inspirational Part of his responsibilities included booking acts such as the Temptations, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, and Bobby Goldsboro, and he is even given credit for signing a then-unknown duo named Simon & Garfunkel. Feeling he had little choice, Amos sold his remaining interest in Famous Amos to the Basses for $1.1 million, keeping a small tie to the company as a board member. [19][20][21] Amos currently resides in Columbia, South Carolina, where he is working on Aunt Della's Cookies.[21]. He has written 10 books,[6] many of which have a self-help theme, including The Cookie Never Crumbles[7] and The Power in You. Bush. Besides cookies and muffins, promoting literacy is his passion. After one year as a paid spokesman for . Wally later made a comeback in the world of cookies under a new name, The Cookie Kahuna, in 2014. That's not a bad pitch.''. The senior Wallace Amos, whom his son once described as a "good person . He was granted a National Literacy Honors Award by President George H.W. [CDATA[ He signed Simon and Garfunkel and The Animals.". Andy Warhol came and they had cookies and milk and champagne. degree. Amos decided to change the brands name to Uncle Nonam. In the aftermath of the court cases, Amos abandoned all hopes of baking and selling cookies and sold muffins and cakes under the Uncle Noname label (originally formed in 1992). while serving in the Air Force. At one side is a reading room with dozens of donated books and Amos usually spends Saturdays sitting on a rocking chair, wearing a watermelon hop hat, reading to children. Like any great star, the famous Wally Amos continued to reinvent himself, launching other baking ventures including Uncle Noname Gourmet Muffins (now Uncle Wally's Muffin Company) and The Cookie Kahuna. Wallace Amos, Jr. was born in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1936. However, in 1985, mismanagement forced Amos to gradually sell off parts of his company. "I don't take things seriously," he says. With hard work and easy charisma, Amos worked his way into a role as a talent scout with William Morris Agency. The muffins, for instance, are a leading brand in Pathmark supermarkets in the New York area and are available nationally in stores like Costco warehouse clubs and Edwards supermarkets. While muffins may be on his mind, Amos couldnt entirely leave the cookie business. "It's not the same formula. However, in 1985, mismanagement forced Amos to gradually sell off parts of his company. Amos also started a new cookie company, called Chip & Cookie the "only company baking from pure, unadulterated Wally Amos recipes," according to Amos's website. (Photo of Wally Amos courtesy of Shawn Amos; photo collage by Elina Shatkin). Day 27: Wally Amos. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/trade-magazines/amos-wally, "Amos, Wally In 1988, the Shansby Group bought the company for $3 million dollars, not a lot of dough for that era. His entrepreneurial spirit in tact, Mr. Amos switched to a line of low-fat and fat-free muffins. Why did Wally Amos lose his company? mitataksemme sivustojemme ja sovellustemme kyttsi. The Famous Amos Cookie Company was born. I think its bordering on being fanatical.. His house had been reposed by the bank. Neither he nor Keebler would disclose how much the company was paying him to bite into Famous Amos cookies in public and urge people who spot him in airports to buy them. The year Wally stopped selling cookies, he shaved his beard and stopped wearing hats. (February 23, 2023). He created a massive global brand.Famous Amos Cookies.and then lost it all.vMost cookie lovers don't. Applegate, Jane. He created a massive global brandFamous Amos Cookiesand then lost it all.vMost cookie lovers don't know he hasn't been part of that company for almost 30 years.It was a devastating loss, but one he takes full responsibility for. "The cookies' reputation began to grow as my contacts multiplied," he recalled in his book, The Power in You. He was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, until he was 12 years old. None of them have had the mass appeal or success of Famous Amos. "My dad is a master showman," Shawn says. I'll call you Famous Amos." "I walked into the little cubicle that was my office, and got out my phone book," Amos writes in The Cookie Never Crumbles. A high school dropout who eventually earned a general equivalency diploma, Mr. Amos knew little about business basics and failed to hire managers who did. Hindsight being what it is, Mr. Amos is now able to reflect philosophically on the low points. Soon he had $25,000 in financial backing. With his vision of obtaining, maintaining, and increasing the quality of love in his world, Amos has been recognized for his passion, conscience, caring, and charity. He has also authored ten books. "If I could love myself once a week or so in my home kitchen, I thought, why couldn't I love myself full time, share that love with as many people as possible, and at the same time earn a living doing what I loved most, with a product I loved the best? Did Shark Tank have Crumble cookies? I have a fetish for chocolate chip cookies. After the breakup of the family, he was sent to live with his Aunt Della in New York City. In his autobiography, The Famous Amos Story, Amos said that his parents rarely laughed and seldom displayed affection toward him.